Blood Ties

Chapter 2: Rise from the Ashes

By crimsonwraith
Version 2: (24.08.2004)

I can still feel you

flowing through my veins...

...beating in my heart-

-haunting my every step.

I can still feel

the warmth of your skin

the touch of your lips

upon mine

Your voice echoes louder still…

…long after I said goodbye.

A deep gasping filled the dark and damp atmosphere. Soon, seething curses was breathed in between gasps, as she hardened her gaze, clutching the sweat soaked sheets in between her fists grinding them. She could still see the final images of a passing dream as it faded from the darkness it came, but it would forever be burned into her mind. Just as her voice still rang in her ears like a message that refused to die.

"I'm not like you," Sonya hissed to herself, "I'm nothing like you."

Angrily, Sonya tore herself away from the warmth of her blankets and stormed out the door, leaving behind in the half darkness a trail of torn linen soaked in sweat

And blood.

The cold running water was like an elixir; soothing the burning in her veins. It wasn't just the cold drumming against her skin; but more with the sound. The soft murmurs it made as it fell from the tap, running along her fingers then spiralling into the abyss beyond the sink seemed strangely healing. With this, Sonya stayed this way for a long while, hoping that the calming effects of the water would let her forget the memories of the night.

But then she noticed that there was light just beyond the hallway coming from the living room. She had not turned them on. Curious, the girl reaches over the tap, twisting the stream from existence before sauntering over, drying her hands with her shirt. Peering over the hallway, the first thing Sonya saw was the screen of a small red laptop and hands moving proficiently over the keys, filling the air with a steady hum of struck keys. As she stepped in to get a better understanding, Sonya saw Shinji stretched out across the floor, his head buried into a science textbook. He probably hasn't even noticed that she had come into the room.

Smiling to herself, she moved silently behind her, peering curiously into the screen. "Mitosis?"

The boy stumbles over himself, startled to find Sonya hovering just behind him. For a second, his mouth gaped open but words failed him. Then finally collecting himself, the boy stammers. "S-Sonya… you're awake?" He paused, studying the tired look on her face. "Um, are you alright?"

She merely sighed, shaking her head slightly. "I couldn't sleep, but I'll be okay." With this, Sonya bent over, taking a better look at the screen. "Hey Shinji, this looks like homework." The boy remained silent, looking back at her blankly. "Why are you doing homework?"

Shinji is slow to reply, raising an enquiring eyebrow. "Haven't you heard?" he began, but the girl could only shake her head. "We're going back to school today… "

"Going back…" Sonya echoed amusingly. "It's odd to see someone actually looking forward to school. You're such an obedient student."

You're such an obedient student...

That voice sounded almost like Asuka's when she first said it a few months ago, before things changed for the worst. Before she passed away. They were good times then, and Shinji hoped that only good times followed from here on.

"So..." she began, pushing herself up to her feet, "I bet she made quite an impression on campus. She isn't the kind to lay low and pass things by."

Shinji stifled a giggle, nodding his head in agreement. "I think she lived for attention."

"She craved attention," Sonya clarified, clearly amused.

Shinji smiled serenly, studying the girl in front of her. She was definately different from Asuka. She looked the same, she sounded the same, and to an extent, she even acted the same, but now she was laughing with him, not at his expense.

Then he noticed something across Sonya's brow. It was red, almost like blood. For a second, he thought it could have been his mind playing on her, that it was just the light reflecting off her long silky auburn hair. But it wasn't. The colour was thick and familiar.

Blood.

Concerned for the girl, Shinji quickly pushed himself up to his feet, stepping closer to Sonya, eyeing the crimson trail on her brow. "Sonya... did you hurt yourself?"

He was met by a vacant glance.

Shinji carefully reached over the girl's face, touching the girl's forehead and bringing it back. The texture was the same, the smell unmistakeable. "You're bleeding Sonya..."

The girl quickly reached over her head, brushing her forehead with an open palm before inspecting it. Streaks of red marked her pale palm, causing the girl to stiffen with shock.

"Sonya, please. What's going on?" Shinji begged, his voice now laced with anxiety for the girl, but still she remained silent, her eyes still upon the crimson on her open palm.

Then a shadow fell into the room as Misato stepped through. The fact that she was awake this early in the morning was astounding, the fact that she was sober and dresed in her uniform was even more surprising. But Shinji couldn't care less, his concern clearly with Sonya.

"It's called hematohidrosis(see author's notes)," Misato began to explain, slowly moving over to the girl's side. Pausing, she slowly grasped the girl's open hand and bent over, staring into her horrified green eyes. "It happens when you become so anxious that the blood vessels around your sweat glands burst, making it look like you're sweating blood."

"But," Shinji stammered, "what could make Sonya so scared? What could you be so frightened of?"

The girl fell deathly silent, but her eyes lifting to meet Misato's. Her trembling mouth moves to speak, but words fail her. She tries to explain, but all that came out were incoherent syllables blurred beyond recognition.

Misato gaze hardened at this. "Sonya," Misato began gravely, tugging on her arm, "we going to be late."

Shinji shot a look to the elder woman. "But Misato!"

"We're going to be late for her preliminary synchronization tests," Misato said. With that, she took Sonya by the hand and led her away. Sonya's eyes remained with Shinji's before it disappeared behind the wooden frames, her eyes still with him with a desperate expression, as if wanting, needing to say something to him, but was too late.

Light flickered across the screen, reflecting gently upon Misato's auburn orbs. She stole a quick glace to the simulation bodies on the other side of twelve inch thick reinforced plastic. The hand of the closest body moved ever so slightly, but also managed to charm a wide grin across her face. She returned her attention to the image on the glass of a young girl who looked almost too familiar. This time, her plugsuit came in the colour green. On her face was the look of grim determination.

"So how's she doing. Maya?" she shot over her shoulder to the young Communications Officer busy keying in commands on her console.

The concerned look on her face was less than assuring. "She's barely over the 15 per cent synchronization rate; that's just 2 above the minimum benchmark."

Misato hardened her gaze as she turned angrily toward the image on the glass. "Sonya! What are you doing? Your synch ratio is absolutely appalling"

"I'm trying!" Sonya bit back, grimacing painfully.

The Major could only sigh as she returned her attention back to Maya. "So… what's the status with mental contamination?"

The technician paused for a second, then turned to Misato. "There are no signs of contamination. The A-11 neural connect limiter is operating nominally. However, it seems to be affecting her ability to synchronize with Unit-02."

"What do you mean?" Misato asked over her shoulder, moving over Maya's chair to look at the screen.

Her younger counterpart pointed to the sine wave pulsating across the screen. "Synchronization rate and the risk of mental contamination is directly related."

"That means…" a familiar voice added behind the two. Maya and Misato quickly spun around, finding Ritsuko standing behind them, her hair fading to its natural auburn hue. "It means, Misato, that by restricting her exposure to the Eva, you are also limiting her ability to synchronize with it."

A smirk crawled across Misato's lips. "Hmpf," she snorted, "long time, no see, old friend. Now what are you doing here?"

"Why all the hostility all of a sudden Misato?" she slurred back, "I'm just here to oversee that the Second Child can be used when the time calls for it. That were the words of Commander Ikari himself." An awkward silence followed as icy glares were exchanged between the two women. Then, after a few heartbeats, Ritsuko curled the corner of her lips and stepped over Maya's side. "What is the current limit applied by the A-11?"

"Level 5," Maya replied.

"Level 5!" she gasped back, "It's no wonder that she's barely doing better than her sister was at the end." This caused Misato to peer spitefully at her over her shoulder, but Ritsuko ignored it, focusing instead on the task. "Lower the limit to level 3."

The young technician's eyes shot wide open in disbelief. "But ma'am, the Boston Branch has advised us to operate at level 5 at the very least. Any lower and we risk mental contamination and subsequent mental breakdown."

"I can't allow that," Misato cut in, "the children's safety is our top priority."

"Since when did we have a change in policy?"

"Since we only have 3 remaining pilots in our disposal," Misato bit back. "We can't afford to lose another one."

Suddenly, an image on the screen flashed into view as a Sonya stepped in between the two. "Do it!" she screamed. "I can do this Misato. I know I can!" Her voice faded as her eyes lowered from the view screen, leaving a sense of guilt to dwell upon Misato.

After a while she returned to Maya, her voice was hesitant as she gave her final order. "Lower it."

"Excuse me ma'am."

"You heard me, Maya. I said lower the limiter to level 3."

Maya opened her mouth to reply, but couldn't. Not under the piercing gaze of her two superior officers, not after looking at the determining expression on Sonya's face. Sighing to herself a final time, Maya returned her eyes to the screen as she keyed in her final commands. "Lowering A-11 neural connect limiter to level 3." For a while, only silence filled was heard in the control room, only to be broken soon afterwards by a loud, agonizing scream to echo down the steel hallways.

Elsewhere, a dark stillness hung around the massive room, filled only by a faint crimson light pulsating from the ceiling. A bearded man blankly eyed the diagram on his ceiling, pondering its real implications. He was so immersed in thought that he almost didn't see another man come from behind him.

… almost. "Fuyutski," he threw over his shoulder, "what have you got for me?"

The elder man smirked at the Gendo's acute sense of awareness. "The results from the tests have returned."

"And?"

He moved to Gendo's side, untucking a manila folder from beneath his arm. "The test subject is a complete failure. She was only able to reach 27% before we began to detect signs of mental contamination. She currently being treated for feedback symptoms."

"Professor," Gendo interrupted, still not taking his gaze away from the crimson illustration, "I do not care for this, and you know it. Now tell me what I need to hear."

Perceptive, Fuyutski thought to himself, his grin widening. "Very well… we will be receiving the remainder of the beta variants from Germany as soon as three weeks time. For now, we will have to do with the sample, no matter how incompetent or useless she is."

"A copy is only as good as the original…" Gendo snarled towards the professor. "But it would seem that there is more to this disappointment than meets the eye. For now, we will monitor the subject closely. This has proven both intriguing and worrying, don't you think so, professor?"

"Excuse me sir?"

"We must look into this anomaly, and analyse its implications with regards to our own alpha variant."

"Hmpf," scoffed Fuyutski. "You mean Rei?"

This was only answered by silence and a smirk coming across his lips on an otherwise blank face.

"DAMN IT!"

The sound of glass shattering resonated against the cold tile walls. Crimson bled along the cracks of a broken mirror in the women's change room as Sonya drew her hand back from the small crater she had punched through it. Her fist throbbed, but it was a different pain from the one she was suffering. She had hurt her pride; she could still remember the emergency crew pulling her out of simulation plug as if she were a helpless girl. But she was helpless and this was what hurt the most.

After a long while, she walked back towards a locker marked with her name. Inside was a green plug suit with orange trimmings. Strange, she thought, it almost reminded her of the stench of blood. She had never grown used to the LCL, men were supposed to breathe gasses, not liquids. Sighing to herself, she dejectedly flung her locker shut with a loud bang, but her eyes suddenly fell upon another locker.

Asuka Langley Soryu

"Sister," she thought, walking over to the steel receptacle. It had a massive dent on its surface. Sonya laughed at this. "I know just how you feel." Noticing that there was no lock, Sonya moved curiously over to the lock box and opened it. Inside was a set plug suits, almost identical to her own, except that it was red. It suited her character, Sonya thought as she tried to remember what her sister was like. Faint images of a small redheaded girl came to her mind. She was smiling.

Suddenly, the door to the change rooms creaked open, prompting the girl to glance over her shoulder towards the girl standing there, glaring blankly at her. The girl was like a ghost, her skin eerily pale, her eyes dissonantly crimson. She glided across the tiled floors, stopping just in front of her.

"Asuka," she whispered.

Sonya paused, and then realized that she was sitting in front of Asuka's open locker. Quickly amending her mistake, Sonya shut the locker and grinned awkwardly. "Actually, my name is Sonya. I'm Asuka's sister."

The girl's eyes hardened despite this. "Your eyes… they're green."

This earned her a raised eyebrow. "I said that I'm not Asuka-"

"I know who you are," the girl cut in with a hauntingly dry whisper, "Sonya. You are one of us."

For a moment, Sonya could only stare blankly at the girl before a thought dawned on her. "You must be Rei Ayanami, the First Child, aren't ya?" This was met by a cold silence, leaving an awkward feeling at the pit of her stomach. Forcing herself to step forward, Sonya offered a hand to her comrade. "Let's be friends…"

Rei froze as she saw the girl twitch, her lips curling slightly into a weak smile. "If I am orde…" she paused as something else crossed her mind. "Thank you."

Somehow, she seemed more confused than cold, as if reciting something that she had said to Asuka when they had first met. She must know something about her sister. Curiously moving to the side of Rei, Sonya threw a friendly arm over her neck. "So Rei… can I call you Rei?" The girl didn't object, Sonya smiled at this, "I bet you and Asuka didn't get along all that well, eh, Rei?" Again she was silent, but Sonya didn't mind. "Don't worry, I'm not my sister."

Suddenly, the weak smile on her face faded. "But you are…" Rei said in a soft voice. "You are very much like her…"

"…"

"and me…" With this, Rei turned around and walked out the door, leaving Sonya all to herself amidst a room filled with lockers with no names.

Time is an extraordinary phenomenon: it can seed a specie and wipe it out as if it has never existed. It can raise civilizations, then return them to the dust of their foundations. Only three months ago, Tokyo-3 was nothing but another artificial layer dotting the coast of Japan. Three months had past, and a new city rose above the ashes of the old. Spires rose high into the heavens as if to touch the stars themselves. Such was the resilience of man. But Shinji didn't see it this way. To him, he saw this as man's testament of his eternal arrogance. The past belonged behind him.

Sighing to himself, Shinji slowly looked back to the front finding two faces glaring intently back at him.

"… can't wait until our next class trip to Okinawa." Touji declared out loudly. "Just two more weeks…"

An anxious sweat drop rolled along Kensuke's brow, turning lazily back to Shinji. "So are you coming along?"

"What?"

"I'm sure the hero who saved mankind from the angel threat deserves to get a break once in a while."

Angel threat, he repeated to himself. The images of the smiling face of Kaworu flashed in his mind, causing him to quiver slightly. He could only smile awkwardly at this. "I have to talk to Misato about this, but I think I'm should be able to go."

"What about Asuka?" Touji added, before being silenced as Hikari's back-fist found the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

Hikari quickly took his place, giving Shinji an inquiring look. "So how's Asuka doing? I hope she's alright to come on this trip."

Shinji found himself speechless. How can he explain what happened to Asuka. Touji and Kensuke, no matter how much they seemed to hate her, really took her in as a friend, but Shinji was more concerned for Hikari. They were best friends How can he tell her that Asuka was dead?

Then there was a knock at the door. It swung open. The teacher paused, stealing a look towards the opening and smiled. "Ah, we've been expecting you. Please come in."

"Thank you," a familiar voice replied. Shinji's eyes shot up, turning sharply towards the door as the girl strode in. Her long red hair trailed behind her as Sonya stopped in front of a paralysed class. "Hi, my name is Sonya. Sonya Langley Soryu, and I'm pleased to meet you all."

"No way!" Kensuke gasped, adjusting his spectacles as he studied the double in front of sitting opposite to him. "She's MULTIPLYING!!!"

Touji fell to his knees in mock misery. "NOO!!! NO GOD, NOOO!!!"

This earned him another cold knock at the back of his skull, silencing him once more, painfully at that. Hikari managed a weak smile towards Sonya, still taken aback by her likeness with her other friend. "I'm pleased to meet you, Sonya but I was wondering where Asuka is. I haven't seen her in quite some time, and I'm worried for her."

Sonya smiled reassuringly, placing a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. "Uh- she's alright!" She saw Shinji twitch at this, but carried on with her lie. "Her study visa expired a week ago, so she had to go back to Germany. She really wanted to say goodbye, but she didn't want to see you crying over her. It would have hurt her too much."

Hikari turned blankly to her. "Are you sure she said that? That doesn't sound like Asuka at all."

Sonya cringed, thinking quickly of what else to say. "Uh, she also said that…" she quickly scanned the room for something to say, then noticed something from the corner of her brightening eyes. "She also said that she didn't want to see these… three stooges. It would spoil her trip home."

This earned her an assured smile from Hikari. "That's our Asuka alright…"

"Yeah," Touji added, rubbing the throbbing at the back of his head, "good riddance…" He was immediately met by a cold glance and piercing from girl to her side, immediately prompting him to silence.

"So," Hikari stood up, bowing deeply. "I'm very pleased to meet you… Sonya Langley Soryu."

"Yeah!" Kensuke added, "nice to meet you."

"Uh, hey Sonya!" Shinji cut in, "I was wondering if you've met Rei?"

"Rei?" Sonya paused for a second before remembering. "Ah! You mean that creepy blue haired girl at HQ!"

"R-right," sighed Shinji.

Sonya tilted her head onto her should as she looked for ways to describe her. "She's alright, I guess... Why? Do you like her?"

Shinji nearly fell off his seat at this, his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. He could feel his cheeks blushing brightly. "Th- THAT'S NOT LIKE IT AT ALL! I WAS JUST-"

"C'mon! Shin Man!" Kensuke drawled shrewdly. "You've got the hots for her don't you?"

"Her silky things," Touji added.

"Her crimson eyes," Sonya chimed in.

"Her," everyone began, "naughty bits."

Blood threatened to shoot out Shinji's nose as his face turned from blushing to fuming in the space of a breath. Angrily, he pushed himself up from the seat and walked out of the cafeteria.

As the boy's shadow disappeared, Sonya couldn't help but feel guilty. Hikari saw this from the corner of her eyes. "Hey Sonya…"

"Yeah?" she groaned languidly.

"You know… Shinji doesn't really like Rei."

"I know that," Sonya hissed. "I was only joking with him."

"No, I meant that, Shinji liked someone else." Hikari watched as Sonya's gaze lifted eagerly to meet hers. She smiled at this. "I'm not 100% sure, but I think there was something between Shinji… and Asuka…"

"You mean Shinji, and my sister?" she breathed. After a moment of shock, Sonya threw her head back, laughing to herself. "You've got to be kidding. There's no way those two could have ever gotten along. They're way too different for it to work out." Strangely enough, Hikari fell silent at this, sending a cold chill down Sonya's spine. Is this girl telling the truth? Shinji did say that he kissed Asuka…

or more accurately...

Asuka kissed him.

Just what did Asuka see in this boy?

Just what do I see in this boy?

I feel sick…

To be continued

Next Episode

Chapter 3: Bloodbath

Just when Shinji was getting used to the concept of peace, a new threat strikes at the very heart of Tokyo-3. Once again, the Evangelions are called into action, but are they enough to stop this new juggernaut who controls the very nature of light. How can they stop something that they can't see?

When all else fails, Sonya is called into action in a last ditch attempt to defeat the angel, but is she ready to pilot an Evangelion? What is the cost of victory?

Author's notes

Firstly, about the hematohidrosis thing... Misato is not stupid. I believe that she is only playing dumb when in fact she would go to great lengths to take care of the children. She would probably have taken several things into consideration before taking Sonya in.

I am close to finishing the next chapter, and boy, I've got something to shock you guys. All I can say is that you will not see it coming (and if you can… SHADAP SMARTASS!!!)